Quiet Flux

Set aside preconceived ideas regarding "music".

Imagine sounds ordered to reflect elements and atmospheres of changing environments.

Sonic Sensibilities

The sounds of cultural life reveal both the inner and outer worlds.

Society and the individual create and move according to rhythms and patterns, some common and predictable, others obscure. The wise observer and participant understands the qualities of stillness and equanimity as also essential, being moderating and balancing forces.

These are conditions the composer and listener may directly influence in the course of events, both being percipients.

Other Dimensions

Aesthetic sound art is as accessible as listening, and hearing.

The composer may experiment, theorize, and speculate, exploring the range of possible aural forms while developing individual perspectives and methods over the course of decades.  Regardless, if the purpose and effect is that of the creation of the good and the beautiful, there can simply be no greater meaning than the integrity of work itself.

Each listening experience is its own.

Environmental Processes and Patterns

All atmospheres yield unique elements.

Rambling farmhouse surrounded by fields of broomstraw, ship's flight deck, midnight forest and urban marketplace all host sonic events that may soothe, shock, amuse, puzzle, or generate any number of responses in the listener's consciousness.

Separate, combine, juxtapose, evolve: these strategies and tactics create auditory imagery in the crucible of the inner ear, to be brought into being through the instrument of the studio using both primitive and highly technological sound production sources.

Expression into Experiences

Art begins with a percipient, then evolves through myriad processes to engages others' awareness.

For the composer, the art of sound offers the peculiar qualities of precisely conveying sound imagery while, paradoxically, providing the listener with an aural field of experiences open to a broad range of associations, ideas, and emotions, with which the composer cannot possibly be aware.

As listener, the composer enters the same field of sounds and becomes equally engaged, at times in unexpected and revealing ways.

Expansion

There is always the impulse to narrow perception of objects and events to superficial, subjective definitions.

Recognize, be receptive, or reject outright. But this is not aesthetic discrimination, the discernment of expression and meaning. For the listener, and composer as well, it is a matter of thought as well as experience. Mere openness or close-mindedness is not enough to contend with the complexities of reality and appearances, and is self-defeating.

To extend one's reach toward immersion in the good and the beautiful is to elevate awareness of the unity of being.

Mind and World at Large

Aesthetic pleasure is a function of intellect, feeling, and outwardly-directed perception.

Likewise, experience, heart, and mind inform introspection and reflection. The composer would do well whose works offer enhancements to both the inner and outer worlds of understanding.

There is no debate that these are faculties of a higher order than those of impulse and egocentric motivation, yet fullness of participation in human events is often reduced to superficiality and gross simplicity, and just as often this is the outcome of personal choice.

It is not the purpose of art to make wider, deeper experience effortless, but to make it possible.

Comparative Sound Structures

Music per se is brought into being in varied contexts of relationship to forms and formulas.

Rather than work in terms of standard methodologies and genre stylings, I develop and arrange aural compositions proportioned to those sounds occurring over the course of events in diverse natural and cultural environments.  Within these limitations atmospheres arise as reflections of real-world auditory phenomena.

Primal

Know sounds, distances, origins, enigmas.

Feel, and convey as percipient, sensation's tone and potentiality as living atmosphere.

Point and Overview

Awash in the trivial, one seeks a more fortifying perspective.

Transcendence of the mundane is not effortless.  One does not simply withdraw from something, but one withdraws to something else.  Seek the sounds of permanence, the sounds of the essences of things. There find reflections of the nature of reality in its abundance.

Ease of Knowing

Approach the perception of sound as a mystery to be revealed.

Mysterious is the expression of being, and everything it communicates.

Tone and Spirit

Out of surroundings, impressions.

Out of impressions, meaning. The objective and subjective combine; sounds emerge, and are directed to total effect.  Within aesthetic beauty, find recognition, perception of atmospheres, and in moments, strangeness, the uncanny.

Listening Range

Elevation of consciousness and the sensory perceptions are intimately linked.

But heightened awareness is dependent upon the spiritual faculties, those of reason and free will. If it is desirable to fully engage reality and enhance life and living, the parameters of one's understanding must be challenged and extended.  One does not simply say, "I will be more perceptive", and attain anything without knowledge and intent.

Clarity in thought and action is a choice, requiring reading the difficult works, grappling with greater ideas, contending with opinion and theory, and daring to listen, with the inner ear, beyond the given.

Once, Now: Modernism

Art does not change; perspectives do.

Those who fail to understand the modern lose connectivity to the origins and impulses of art.

The artist extends the reach of culture, as opposed to attempting to annihilate its aspects of meaning and permanence, those abstract elements of historical imagination clearly present in contemporary reality.

Aural Illuminations

Sound and setting contribute to sensory experience, state of mind, and emotional attitude.

Though artist and composer may strive for detachment and objectivity, the individual and personal will inevitably be part of process and outcome.  Reflections of the self will be brought to light with the work, yet they need not be motivation or focus of the work's tone and total effect.

Culture and Communication

The composer must be committed to the art and to the listener.

The listener begins with commitment to the art, with its cultural as well as personal connections. This is the engagement the composer shares.  One does not measure dedication and responsibility such as this in terms of gain and loss.

Eye, Ear, Mind

The inner ear of mind, like the eye of imagination, exists beyond temporal limits and conceives the extraordinary.

Yet refinement of the former rarely takes place, as the latter is given ascendancy of the senses. To envision a work of art in sound, one must listen, hear, and devise means to bring its elements into being.

Detail, Aural Sensation, Sensibility

Listening implies discernment.

In composition, do not fail to distinguish between the coarse and refined, the prominent and indistinct, and the plain in contrast to the subtle.  But do not fail to contemplate their presence as representative of natural reality, and thus, essential.

Hyperreality and Perspective

Consider creation and juxtaposition of aural imagery as imaginative reflection.

Clearly, observation of social norms indicates scenarios in which "perception is reality", when, in fact, no such reality exists, but rather one or another personal or cultural constructs that substitute for the objectively real world of phenomena and appearances.

What I am looking for, as an artist and aural composer, are representations, through sounds, of the real that are indicative of aesthetic perspective given to the world of humanity and nature, meant to open the imagination in ways that enhance, rather than falsify, experience and events.

Surrounding the Temporal

Sounds move in directions of openness and may be manipulated accordingly.

Time and space are aspects of the fabric of reality, but they need not define every perception, nor every form of artistic representation. Sound imagery, in particular, may elevate the imagination and the senses beyond temporal attachments.  Composer and listener do not make this happen, but allow it to take place.

Occurrences

Every event is multifaceted, the outcome of convergences of innumerable phenomena.

Meaning takes place individually, and selectively, as when witnesses respond to their perceptions of singular incidents.  Thus the composer chooses tones and sounds as poetic representations of sonic experiences, to be conveyed to the listener, laden with uncanny implications and possibilities.

Across Probablilties

Abstractions and known paradigms serve as starting points.

One speaks of such things as ambience, minimalism, indeterminacy, and so forth as matters of shared knowledge, yet realization of meaning comes through processes leading ultimately to total effect.

Speculation, for the composer, is action rising into being.

Opening

Certainly any listener gravitates toward the sounds that provide the most enjoyment, or, if you prefer, aesthetic pleasure.

Of particular interest are scenarios in which the sounds of the listener's surroundings generate that peculiar attraction that music, in the general sense, does not. These are the sounds of the human and natural world, sharing little more than qualities of tone and pattern with the elements of music, yet they possess a beauty, in totality of effect, that is uncanny in the sense of being simultaneously familiar, yet strange.

For the composer, this means coming to terms with the myriad aspects of such atmospheres, and, through aural experimentation, composition, and production, reflecting their virtues.

Aural Evocations

Simply put, life is a creative process, one that is immersed in sounds.

The universe of nature and humanity is equally one of imagination and spirit, and the atmospheres of living change combine every element, including those present nowhere else except in the inner ear.

Variability

Changes in the arts involve individual perception as well as aesthetic and theoretical developments.

One sees and hears, while another does not; gradually, shared perceptions gain clarity.  What was once apparently empty becomes filled, and culture gradually absorbs and expands with perceptivity.

Completeness, Timelessness

Every moment taken inwardly lifts the spirit.

Such is the way of permanence.  Listen, hear with fullness, and the source is joy.

Thank you for your interest & support of our art, with five albums in today's Ambient MP3 Top 100 at Amazon.com.

Settings

The sounds of all seasons compel attention to richness of experience, within and without.

It is not the sounds themselves, but the peculiar attitudes and atmospheres they convey, in subtle and sometimes incomprehensible forms, that lift the perceptions, emotions, and the spirit above the otherwise mundane and ordinary, even into places of idea and vision that can only be described as uncanny.

Filter and Field

Extending aural perception is a matter of focus and deliberation.

Where attention is turned away, search; when consciousness is open and aware, listen, and hear with the inner ear.  Discovery and realization drive both creative act and elevated understanding.

Stepping Stones

In conceptual experiments with sound, success and failure are of equal interest to the composer.

Consider, for example, a piece in which one part of the process in composition and performance is control, while other steps are left to chance, and the evolution of the artistic work in sound develops between the two.  Success emerges in the production of aesthetically beautiful sounds, yet failure brings the composition closer to realization.

Imagining Echoes

In listening and composing, broaden the range of the inner ear.

Survey possibilities and delineate sounds as a cartographer would in developing a three-dimensional map, noting not only expanses, landmarks and contours, but the movement of objects through time and space as well.

Absorption

Consider music as part of a time stream, and listening follows from point to point.

Consider, rather, an art of sound composed as an expanding moment of being, and be immersed within it.

Artificiality

Appearances increasingly lose reliability in the course of political and cultural conflicts.

The aesthetic sense, being evaluative in nature, in accord with moral reason, provides creative insight into chaotic scenarios generated by contending viewpoints.  From such a  perspective of equanimity, an unobstructed flow of perceptions and ideas is natural.

The composer would do well to bring sound imagery into being that reinforces consistent clarity of consciousness in approaching the phenomena of illusory and deceptive appearances.

Chance

Aleatoric art, the reader will note, integrates the idea of chance in the process of composition.

Ideas and elements of composition present themselves in unexpected ways in the art of aural imagery and may be transformed into the work in like manner.

Neither improvisation nor random activity in search of  a "happy accident", the aleatoric aspect of creative action provides for the aesthetic expression of perspectives on sound events as they evolve and are juxtaposed in the course of various works.  Whether in studio or in in the process of field recordings, this perspective is of high value in the creation of atmospheres that reflect "real world" perceptions of settings and vantage points in motion.

Material

Nature yields to impermanence.

To reflect upon the totality of available recorded music is to be aware of inevitable change.

Sound, System, Synthesis

Ultimately, the concept of music is undefined.

What is understood is the art of sound as it relates to individual and group sensibilities in subjective ways, while the objective outlines, analyses, and critical observations of technique, style, and expression carry equal weight in specialized cultural contexts.

I explore, ranging far afield.

Fire of Spirit

Of the arts, music is burdened most by social constructs vis-à-vis conformity in terms of sound, fashionability, political stances, and other things of this nature.

In addition to the dull and mediocre, works that are absurdly outré are conferred the status of acceptability if they conform to the collective sensibilities of a mass audience or are granted recognition by academic institutions or media conglomerates. 

For the imaginative composer and the discriminating listener as well, it is fortunate that the aforementioned scenarios need no longer be formidable obstacles to creative expression.

Saturation

Listeners experience the perception of musical forms as they experience culture.

Certain impressions are individual and relate to personal experience; others suggest social environments and relationships as well as collective frames of reference.

Between composer and listener is a point of contact, a merging of tone, idea, and feeling.

Myth and Legend

Predictability yields excess as well as ennui.

As genre loses individually, it is re-framed in bombast, as no amount of subtlety can disguise the banal. Evidence of this failure of imagination is everywhere plentiful, and opposition to it, in terms of the art of sound, is the responsibility of both composer and listener.

Promoveo, promovi, promotum.

Increase

Expansion of experience enlarges the capacity for perceptual awareness.

As engagement with the art of sound grows, it becomes possible to move beyond personal bias into wider appreciation of diversity, discernment of fullness of expression in addition to proficiency of technique, and respect for the conceptual and philosophical as well as the affective and energetic.

The opening of the mind's eye and inner ear of imagination heralds the arrival of what is yet to be.

Sound and Reasoning

The art of listening recognizes beauty in a combination of elements, including thought and feeling as well as environmental acoustical processes and properties.

Moving through the public square the listener encounters myriad sonic atmospheres, some static and confined to particular areas, others relatively unfettered, and all perceived within the dynamic of the listener's activities. Within the personal environment, the listener may exercise greater influence over the listening experience, yet various aspects of the quality of sound, as well as movement within the more intimate setting, similarly engage the mind and emotions.

If the composer's aims are finely delineated and artistic sound works, it is absolutely essential to give consideration to the perceptivity, desirable state of mind, and consciousness of the potential listener with the same attention given to that of the fabrication of the creative auditory environment.

Continuance

Within the atmosphere, the listener moves and participates.

Giving attention to sound means fully experiencing its effects, which may evoke emotions, ideas, reflection, and reverie.  The challenge for the composer is to bring about and sustain these effects in ways that enhance, rather than dominate consciousness, providing listeners a mood of equanimity as well as heightened sensory awareness.

Movement, Inward and Outward

Sound events link perception to memory.

Every element of experience contributes to intellectual and emotional response, and every individual completes a unique perspective within the listening experience.

Like the musician, the composer may choose to project and interpret feeling and attitude; even so, it is possible, on the other hand, to encompass, through reason, art, and act, a worldview to engage and contemplate.

Shadings II

Perception ignites idea.

Idea and action converge.

The idea is to capture the atmosphere of an event, real or imaginary, and give it form through sound that represents the content of that aural setting, the diversity of its sonic elements, and the dynamic manner in which it enters the listener's awareness. In terms of action, aesthetic choices applied to design, structure, and manipulation of sound technology and production are brought to bear in the creation of the total effect of the work.

Ambiguity

Perceptions are identified in the context of knowledge and experience.

It is the sound of the uncanny that mystifies; it seizes imagination and alters perspectives in ways the familiar, that is to say the musically generic and exceedingly common, can not.

Sustain

Respect for consciousness and being demands the transcendence of mundane attachments.

The arts do not exist to serve vanity or populist politics.  With vision, observe widely, feel deeply, express fully; with any media, elevate virtue and exalt vitality in gesture. With sound, particularly, convey perceptivity and clarity through tone, and give voice to the inexpressible.

Manner and the Thing Done

Observe, in the course of events, those things that are constant and those that are impermanent.

Custom and culture inform the arts, but the artist determines the extent to which their pressures influence the work of a lifetime.

Conditions for Perceptivity

Understanding, intuition, reason, perception, action.

Seeking virtue, observe the vitality of the virtuous, constantly enduring.  These are the arts that expand, fill, and elevate consciousness with idea, feeling, spirit, and ideal.

Thin Air

All that will be arises from all that came before.

It is foresight that envisions and creates the leading edge of theory and practice, called, in the arts, the avant-garde.  Yet regardless of perspective, it does not exist without foundation.  Eliot's poetry evokes by allusion as well as by juxtaposition; William Burroughs' fragmentary prose delineates classic themes of human conflict through the imagery of surrealistic film noir.  Andy Warhol's visual art frames a modern world view while encompassing artistic expressions of time past.  The unique experimental and ambient recordings of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno owe as much or more to the unexpected and under-appreciated minimalist response to atonality in classical music as to the history of pop and rock music.

Progress cannot allow itself to be bound and gagged by subjection to immediacy, or mere novelty, any more than by false sentimentality or nostalgia.

Horizon Lines

In the wake of dynamic changes in cultural perspective, obsolete ideas are abandoned.

At the forefront of such changes, understanding depends upon foresight; risks are taken, predictive analysis and experimentation are implemented, and clarity of reason yields possibilities.

Like any artist, the composer must weigh the known against the unknown, and act accordingly.  To do less is to act foolishly in a realm fraught with unintended consequences and, ultimately, failure. 

Nonetheless, to choose wisely is to illuminate, through vision as well as sound.

Design and Intent

The arts inform as well as entertain, and diverse media lend themselves to various purposes.

While there is nothing unusual about music as an enhancement to contemplative or introspective experience, its value and function as such is not as clearly evident as its roles in popular listening diversion, dance, or even in the contexts of religion and spirituality.  

As one may become lost in thought, so it is possible for sound to displace the ego and direct the attention towards a consciousness of things greater than oneself; and thus listener and composer aspire and strive together.